Hockey came first.
Then, soccer, golf and tennis.
Covington Catholic senior Ben Unkraut has played all those sports—and done well. He has a 4.3 grade point average, scored 30 on his ACT test, and plans to play golf and study business next fall at Transylvania University in Lexington.
Hockey is Unkraut’s favorite game.
“My mom (Stacey Unkraut) threw me out on the ice when I was 3,” Unkraut said. “I was the only one out there that could skate, and that’s why I kept playing.”
CovCath tennis coach Al Hertsenberg didn’t need to be convinced of Unkraut’s athleticism.
“Ben Unkraut is one of the most athletic seniors that I’ve seen,” Hertsenberg said.
Nor did Colonels golf coach Ryan Lubbers.
“I think whatever he … decided he wanted to do and focus on, I think he was going to be able to play in college in several different sports,” Lubbers said.
Unkraut also talked to colleges about soccer. (He was a goalie in the King’s Hammer youth soccer program before concentrating on golf as a freshman in 2021.)
Strong hockey statistics
If you go by the statistics, hockey is Unkraut’s best sport – in 76 games with the Northern Kentucky Norsemen senior youth team, which went to a USA Hockey national tournament in March in Irvine, California, he scored 48 goals and served 40 assists.
“He was a very offensive player for us … we relied on him quite a bit to score some goals,” Norsemen head coach Eric Kathman said. “He was more quiet than he was vocal.”
The best Unkraut, 17, remembers, he started liking hockey some eight years ago.
“It’s a good program, but hockey around here is not the most competitive, but I was the best on the team by far. It was just fun,” he said.
After the Norsemen won the Kentucky state high school title, Unkraut scored a goal in California. What impressed him more was how good the other teams were.
“It was a great time,” Unkraut said. “I mean the caliber of teams there is just so much higher than anything we see around here.”
Until he joined CovCath’s golf team as a sophomore, the only thing Unkraut did was go to the World of Golf range in Florence.
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“I hit balls sometimes, went out with my parents,” he said.
Former CovCath coach Alex Ammerman thought making the varsity without extensive youth experience was unusual. He said playing on longer courses helped his development.
“You could just tell how confident he was,” Ammerman said. “He was always confident in his abilities, even though sometimes you kind of knew he didn’t know what was right or wrong on the golf course,” Ammerman said. “But that was a positive for him, just the innocence almost. It helped him really block out any negative thoughts, and it allowed him to to grow (on) his own.”
Unkraut said his accuracy from 100 yards out is the strength of his game. As for keeping the ball on the fairways – he averages 280-300 yards off the tee – not so much.
“I hit it hard, but I’d take 30 yards off and hit it straight if I could,” Unkraut said.
Louisville native Justin Thomas is Unkraut’s favorite professional golfer.
“Alex Ammerman … played against him in high school, so I would always hear these stories about how crazy good he was. That was a couple years ago, and I’ve been following him ever since,” Unkraut said.
A quick study
Unkraut took up tennis about a month ago.
I played with my buddies a couple of times,” he said. “And I got out there, and I was kicking their butts … I showed up to tryouts, and I won all my matches, and I’m on the varsity team.”
CovCath senior tennis player Kalei Christensen is one of Unkraut’s best friends – they’ve known each other for nearly 10 years, and they’ve played golf and soccer together – and talked as much trash as 27 Rumpke garbage truck drivers over coffee and donuts at 6 a.m.
“I told him I’m not the best at golf, but somehow I got pulled up to the varsity this year,” Christensen said.
Unkraut and Christensen traded playful insults on the golf course, but Christensen did not reciprocate when Unkraut joined the two-time defending state champion tennis team.
“It’s like a full circle moment,” Christensen said. “He’s just such a genuine kid and he always likes to talk – talk trash. I mean, he’s just a cool character. I love him to death; he’s a great guy.
“ … I eventually want him to get better and get close (at tennis) and have great matches with me.”
As an NCAA Division III school, Transylvania does not offer athletic scholarships, but Unkraut is in the school’s premier scholarship program, and he “got a pretty solid” aid package. He plans to major in business administration/management and maybe go to law school.
But for him, being in the same city as the University of Kentucky is as important.
“I wanted to be in Lexington, and I found Transy had a really good golf program, great coach,” he said. “And I’m right in Lexington, all my friends are going to be there.”